


Runner.  1/1.

by punky_96



Series: Runner [1]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 08:46:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14328828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punky_96/pseuds/punky_96
Summary: Re-post from LJ.AU. Callie takes a Runner into her House of Neutrality. How will it change her?Kink Bingo Prompt:  brands/brandingThis fic was part of my first KB card in 2009 ;)





	Runner.  1/1.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not sure where this came from in my head exactly. I feel a little bit like Telanu’s Lily and the Crown, but this is sooooo not that so I’m really not sure.

 

 

**_Runner_**  
  
Callie had moved to NML years ago. After the uprising, she had no ties to the regime and no love either. She had done no wrong and they had no cause to hurt her, so she had been able to leave in peace. A free woman on the outside of the fence, she could come and go as she pleased. She was the object of jealousy from those trapped within the fence. To those who were the captors, she was a curiosity. Those who did not know her did not understand her. What had the empire done to her? Why would she choose to live a half-life such as this? Why would she move out, but stay so close? Why not move on?  
  
The truth was she couldn’t. As free as she was. She was bound to this place as tightly as any of them. Power or prisoner they were all locked tight for one reason or another. For a prisoner it was the bond of servitude. For the power it was the bond of power. For one to leave it was punishment. For the other to leave it was a loss of identity.  
  
Callie was neither power or prisoner, but she was locked to this place just the same.  
  
Her mother had been the Martriarch of the outpost. During the uprising, she had been killed and her father had committed suicide rather than be a prisoner to her enemies. Her brother had become the dark Wielder of Power. Callie had gone inside herself then. It was a fight between her right and left hands with no real winner. So, she chose to sit this one out, but she could not bring herself to leave. All that was left inside the fence was pain. All that surrounded the fence was emptiness.  
  
Beyond the sphere of power and pain there had to be something else, but Callie did not dare to dream of it.  
  
She had found the blonde behind her trash bins.  
  
Callie had considered calling a Power for clearly this was a Runner. Looking down at the woman’s face, she could not do it though. Instead, she dragged the woman into her House of Neutrality and tended to her.  
  
The woman did not wake the entire first day. Callie wasn’t sure what to do for her. She was a doctor inside the fence, but that was many years ago and her access to such supplies was diminished now. She couldn’t just go into the Clinic and ask for medicines that she clearly had no need of. After another half day of anxious waiting, Callie decided to start with the basics.  
  
She had an old nightgown and so she stripped the woman, washed her, and put it on her. As she did she checked for wounds and any signs of injury or illness. Rolling the woman onto her back, Callie gasped as she saw the raised mark of a Runner. She timidly ran her fingertips over the maroon mark and memorized the feel of the woman’s skin under her touch. Continuing her inspection/appreciation of the woman’s body, Callie discovered that on the front of her right upper arm there was a second Runner’s Mark. Callie fought a shiver as she caressed the skin, cleaning it and knowing the agony that she must have gone through. Callie had always wanted to run, even before the uprising. She had wanted to break free and live a life that she chose, not one dictated by her family’s status or their choices for her, but one that she chose and earned on her own merit and skills. She had never been able to run and then misery had trapped her. She felt like a caged bird whose roof had slowly closed in around her, until she was barely able to stand under its oppression.  
  
Callie put the gown on the woman as soon as her upper body was clean. She did not want the woman to wake up halfway through the cleaning and freak out naked on a strange bed with a strange woman. At least this way the woman would be clothed in a nightgown.  
  
Callie lifted the woman’s legs one at a time to cleanse them. The first leg had a cut on the shin that Callie cleaned and then put a bandage on. The second leg was whole, until Callie ran her fingers under the back of the woman’s calf. Standing between the woman’s legs at the end of the table Callie lifted the leg up to inspect the raised markings that she felt there. Her heart sank to her stomach as she realized it was a third Runner’s Mark. If found, the woman would be marked for death this time. Callie ran her fingers over the mark again and again. Each time going over it like a question. How had this woman found the courage to run? Where was she going? What did she see on the horizon beyond the flat line of despair that Callie saw? How could she keep throwing herself at the unknown wanting to breakaway? Before Callie realized it, she had brought her face close to the leg and her lips had planted a firm chaste kiss on the mark.  
  
“What?”  
  
Callie put the leg down quickly and turned wide shocked brown eyes on shifting hard blue eyes.  
  
“S… Sor… Sorry.” Callie said as she wiped her hands on her pants and moved to the woman’s side. “You were unconscious. I was tending to you.” Callie winced at how meek she had become.  
  
The woman’s hard eyes looked her up and down. Then they perused the room. The blonde closed her eyes and Callie could see her flexing each muscle, moving her body in small subtle ways to test it. It was a diagnostic. Callie admired the woman’s control. Except for her introductory question, the woman had shown very little other reaction and said nothing else. All Callie could do was wait.  
  
“You are not a Power.” The woman said when she opened her eyes again. She made no move to get up. She looked up at the ceiling, her mind whirling very fast. “And yet,” she looked down at the gown now on her body and then she turned to look Callie over again. “You are dressed like one.” The woman sat up and swung her legs down to dangle off the small high bed. “What is this place and who are you?”  
  
Callie swallowed. Never had she seen such a presence of being, such focused understated power in an individual, let alone a Prisoner. Her mother exuded this kind of confidence and cool demeanor. Her mother had been Matriarch of the outpost. “This is the House of Neutrality. I am Callie.”  
  
She saw the woman flinch at her name. “Callie. Torres.” The woman before her added the unspoken last name grimly as she locked her eyes on Callie’s. “Why did you tend to me? Just to revive me and mark me for death?” It was a bitter statement and Callie stepped back as she saw the woman’s fists at her sides.  
  
“No. I. You are not marked for death here. This is a safe place. You cannot be marked here in the House of Neutrality. The Wielder of Power has no place here.”  
  
The blonde nodded slowly. She was still unsure. But she had no other options at present.  
  
***  
  
The days passed in a guarded silence. Callie got no real information out of the Runner, but they settled into a rhythm. Callie made a breakfast for the two of them to eat in silence. The Runner worked out and showered while Callie went inside the fence and ran errands or went out to tend her plot of plants. The afternoons were spent in separate spheres as they read or watched a program in separate rooms of the house. The Runner had started to make the dinners as a way of paying for Callie’s hospitality although neither of them spoke about it. The evenings often found them together playing a game of strategy. The Runner seemed to regard Callie with a new understanding as they played these games. Callie held her own quite well regardless of the game and strategy needed. She even bested the Runner on occasion. The Runner seemed at once impressed and confused, but never asked Callie anything.  
  
***  
  
On the evening of the seventh day the Runner came up behind Callie who was on her bedroom balcony looking at the stars. “Why did you save me?”  
  
Callie turned to find herself quite close to the Runner. Her eyes were drawn to her lips. Callie licked her own and swallowed. “You saved yourself.” She whispered.  
  
“This is not living.” The Runner’s expression softened as she raised her hand and brushed the backs of her fingers against Callie’s cheeks.  
  
“If you go back, you will die.” Callie said blinking back a sudden tear.  
  
The Runner lowered her hand and took Callie’s between both of hers. “Why did you kiss my Runner’s Mark?” She asked quietly.  
  
“I… I… I don’t know.” Callie stammered out. The truth was she wasn’t sure why she had done it. The first mark had shocked her and she wanted to memorize it. To know what the colony did to those who disobeyed. The second mark had surprised her, but she had respect for this unnamed woman who would defy the Power a second time. The third mark showed a reckless willingness to fight for freedom that Callie did not understand. The woman on the bed before her was a powerful mystery and Callie knew that she had chosen death rather than stay inside the fence.  
  
But why had she kissed the mark? Callie shook her head uncertain.  
  
The Runner regarded her for many long seconds appearing to crawl into Callie’s mind.  
  
She nodded and released Callie’s hand. “When you know the answer, I shall leave.”  
  
“But you’ll die.”  
  
“If I go back, I will die. If I leave, I will die. If I stay here in this half-life of shadows, I will die.” The Runner looked into Callie’s eyes her own an open blue like the wide-open skies Callie remembered from her free childhood. “Search your heart for the answer, Callie.”  
  
***  
  
On the night of the fourteenth day, Callie came to the guest quarters in her nightgown. She had had a nightmare and knew that only the Runner could help her. Opening the door let in a shaft of light and Callie is taken aback at the beautiful form that is the Runner’s sleeping body. “Runner.” Callie whispers into the darkened room. She cringes hearing herself use that term, but the Runner has given her no other name to call her by. Callie rejected her Power. She could not be a Prisoner, but she lived as power neutral as she could. Calling another human by the term Prisoner or Runner made her a Power just by the very nature of the terms. She hated it, but had no other choice. Her heart still pounding from her nightmare, she held the door and coughed.  
  
“What?” The Runner sat up in the bed her eyes scanning the dark and the light blocked by Callie’s body. She took in a deep breath and canted her head to the side. “What?” She said softer this time.  
  
“Nightmare.” Callie said in a small voice.  
  
The Runner scooted more into the middle of the bed and gently tapped where she had been lying in silent invitation. It was clear to Callie that the Runner was not going to speak the words. With a hard look of blue eyes, Callie jumped from the doorway and shut it as she crossed the darkened room to the bed. She settled in and faced away from the Runner. Her heart was still racing but now she thought that the nightmare had faded and it was because she was in a space warmed only minutes before by the Runner’s perfect athletic body. Callie counted her breaths up to one hundred and found that she was still on edge. She wasn’t sure if this wasn’t just another kind of nightmare.  
  
The Runner sighed and Callie felt warmth all along her back and a strong arm settled over her like a lover’s. “You don’t have to be alone.” The Runner husked in a sleepy breath before she settled her head behind Callie’s her slow sleepy breathing on the back of her head.  
  
Callie suddenly had tears in her eyes.  
  
In her nightmare, the Runner had tried to go back inside the fence to plead her case. She had been killed upon reaching the gate that Callie passed through every day. Then Callie had screamed in her dream watching it from her place on the road approaching the gate. Only, the scene morphed and Callie was standing on her bedroom balcony looking out over the horizon. The Runner had left her place of safety at Callie’s side and Callie had watched her go until the Hunters had followed and brought her back for death. Callie had wept then, curled into a ball on the floor of her balcony. When Callie woke she was devastated. The Runner wanted to leave, but Callie couldn’t see how she could want that. She needed to see the Runner and prove it was all a dream.  
  
Callie woke some hours later. It was still dark, but there was a slight lightening indicating that morning was not so far away. In her sleep, Callie had found herself hugging the arm thrown over her and her fingers were stroking the Runner’s Mark on the upper arm of the woman. Callie turned under the woman’s embrace and lay on her back. She continued to stroke the mark on her arm as she watched her sleeping face. Her nightmare was about being left. It was about defeat. It was about trying to live the life of choice and being turned back. Callie had stopped fighting early on. Perhaps if she had stayed true to herself then she would also have Runner’s Marks, like the woman slumbering next to her. Only members of the Power did not get Runner’s Marks. They were branded Traitors to the Oligarchy.  
  
Callie realized that all she had ever wanted was to run—to live free. That was why she had kissed the Runner’s Mark. That was why she had dreamed of her runner going away. It was why fear had made the dream a nightmare. Callie kissed her thumb and ran it over the mark once more. The Runner shifted a little against her and threw a leg across Callie. The new position filled Callie with flutters of joy and she fought to keep her breathing close to normal as she felt the heat between the Runner’s legs against her thigh. “What?” The Runner said quietly in Callie’s ear.  
  
Turning to see if she was still asleep or really asking Callie a question, she found herself face to face and nearly lip to lip with the very awake and very blue eyes of the Runner. Callie blinked and the Runner followed her eyes. Her quiet demeanor asked the question for her.  
  
“I know.” Callie started and then stopped. Her heart was hammering in her chest with un-nameable possibilities. It was as if the roof that had lowered on her life trapping her here in NML had suddenly been blown off and her heart was free and her mind could see clearly for the first time since she had given up as a girl. “I know why.” She said.  
  
Their faces were already so close together and the emotions were overwhelming. The words that Callie needed were lost and trapped behind the fog her brain had lived in for so long. She closed the distance between their lips and pressed hers against the Runner’s. A gasp of surprise was cut off as Callie slipped her tongue into the woman’s mouth. The leg tightened around her as did the arm over her torso and Callie was kissed back.  
  
Pulling away at last, the Runner looked into Callie with penetrating eyes. “What will you do with the answer, Callie?” A surge of joy shot through Callie at that. The Runner had only used her name twice before in the days she had been here. On the first day, it was only as confirmation of who Callie was. But a week ago she had used her name as part of a plea for Callie to understand and as she told her she would be leaving.  
  
“Go with you. It is not running, if we are truly free.”  
  
The Runner blinked back a tear at Callie’s words as she propped herself up on one elbow to look down at Callie. Her blue eyes were gentle as they tracked all over Callie’s face. They lingered on her lips, but before she spoke the eyes locked on wide-open brown orbs. “Erica.”  
  
Turning on her side of a sudden, Callie claimed Erica’s lips with her own. She kissed her lips, tongues licked tongues, and then she drew back nibbling on Erica’s lip between her teeth. Erica’s leg slipped between Callie’s and she sucked in a breath of air as her body tingled with the new sensations between her legs. Using her elevated position, Erica pushed Callie down flat against the mattress with her kiss and rolled up onto her so that her leg was strategically placed against her sex. Erica kissed Callie once more, hard on the lips before trailing hot kisses and nibbles down her neck and across the top of her exposed chest. The flimsy material gave way with very little tearing, but Erica did not waste time with buttons or ties, she simply pulled at the weakness in the fabric until Callie’s breasts were loose and bared to her. Lifting up to look at Callie’s face Erica was overcome with the passion she saw in her eyes. She crashed forward once again and kissed Callie, cupping a breast as she did so. The nipple pebbled in her palm and Erica moaned into Callie’s mouth. Callie’s leg bent up and her thigh pressed against Erica’s sex through her nightgown.  
  
Erica shimmied down Callie’s body forcing Callie to lower her leg again. Her lips, tongue and teeth claimed first one nipple and then the other as her fingers continued the pinching and rolling when her mouth switched away. Callie made fists in the bed sheets as her chest arched up into Erica’s touch. At first there were little indecipherable whimpers and then Callie was simply repeating ‘Erica, Erica, Erica’ as her head thrashed back and forth and her body tried to deal with the sensory overload she was experiencing. It was as if Callie was freeing herself and naming Erica for the first time as they moved together for the first time and tasting freedom.  
  
Callie sucked in great breaths of her future from the air, while Erica tasted the delicious fruits of freedom on her lover’s skin. Erica lowered her kisses and her body down the bed until she was lapping at the wet sex of Callie’s center. As the sun rose fully breaking day, Callie’s body arched almost completely off the bed as she screamed the most powerful release she had ever imagined. She fell back to the bed in a panting heap of skin with melted bones. She was sated. She was happy. She was free.  
  
Erica slithered up her body and curled around the spent form of her lover. She kissed the flushed skin of Callie’s cheeks and gently pushed stands of hair away from her face. Then she settled in above Callie on an elbow and gingerly caressed her abdomen and breasts giving her accidental goosebumps. Callie looked at her lover with fresh eyes. Erica. She repeated in her head. “Come here, you.” She said smiling at the blond.  
  
When Erica lowered her face to kiss Callie, they met in a thunderous kiss. There was an electricity in the air like that of a summer sun storm where there were raindrops, thunder and lightning, but still it was sunny. Passion crackled throughout both of their bodies as they once again lost themselves in lovemaking.  
  
Callie traced the Runner’s Mark on Erica’s back and moaned into their kiss. She rose up then and pushed Erica down. She pulled the remnants of her gown off her body as she did so and Erica let out a low rumbling lusty chuckle as she watched her. Scooting down Erica’s body in a hurry, Callie gathered the gown up and pushed and shoved it up impatiently until Erica lifted up and then half sat up in order to help Callie rid her of the nightgown she was wearing. Both naked now, they each took a moment looking over the other’s skin, curves, features, face, eyes, and lips. Erica reached up for Callie but Callie caught her hands with her own and as she lowered her body over Erica’s she stretched their arms up and over Erica’s head. Callie kissed her full on the lips savoring the taste of herself and Erica.  
  
Wanting more Callie moved up Erica’s body so that she could trace the Runner’s Mark with her tongue. Her breasts slid against Erica’s face and without moving her hands Erica tilted her face to suck Callie’s nipple in her mouth. This sent a jolt of pleasure right through Callie’s body and Erica felt a surge of wetness from Callie’s sex on her stomach. Erica bent her legs up behind Callie and began circling her hips with her legs tightly together to get some much-needed pressure. Callie continued to tongue the brand on Erica’s arm as her own hips started to circle on Erica’s skin. Callie let Erica’s hands go and reached one of hers down to cup and fondle Erica’s breast. The hard suck against her nipple told Callie that she was tired of being teased.  
  
Callie reluctantly left the Runner’s Mark and inched back along Erica’s body until she was looking down at her lover with her hands on both of her breasts. Erica’s hips circling under her was driving her crazy as she rose and fell following her rhythm. Callie reached back and slid her hands between Erica’s legs as they fell open for her. Trusting her lover completely, Callie leaned back opening her sex to Erica’s view. Feeling how wet Erica was for her, Callie shuddered and clasped her legs tight against Erica’s sides. She stroked a few times up through her wetness and then they became one as Erica copied her motions. They easily found a rhythm as Callie undulated her body and Erica bucked to meet her. When Erica changed her touch, Callie moaned loudly and arched her back into the touch. Callie began to circle Erica’s clit with a fast rhythm. She was close to coming from Erica touching her again and she hoped to take her lover with her over the edge.  
  
Their whimpers and motions increased in intensity until they were crying out their release together. Neither wanted the other to stop and so they hung onto their orgasms as long as possible each wanting to push the other further and further as their bodies continued to shake and spasm again and again. One orgasm lead into another as they each coaxed the next shudder from the other. There was no limit on their passion. No roof that could contain their desire. No fence to trap their love inside.  
  
They spent the day in lovemaking and preparations. Callie ran her errands in the city to continue the routine and get last minute supplies. Under the cover of darkness, they left the Outpost, NML, and the House of Neutrality behind. They may not make it to another land, but they would live in freedom not limited by any shackles of time, birth, status, or empty unchanged traditions.  


They were not running if they were truly free.  
**_  
THE END_**

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_x_


End file.
